


A Cosmos Without The Doctor

by Resa_Saso



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-07-17
Updated: 2017-10-19
Packaged: 2018-12-03 12:00:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 5
Words: 7,341
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11531784
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Resa_Saso/pseuds/Resa_Saso
Summary: The Master hid himself from the war but when he finally returns to himself, he has to face a cosmos without the Timelords,without Gallifrey, without the Doctor. So how will he cope, being the last of the Timelords? ¦ A tiny little bit AU, as you may have noticed





	1. Ticking

**Author's Note:**

> This little German person here would be incredibly happy about every kind of feedback concerning her grammar (of course about anything else as well xD). It's the first time I really tried to create something in English that's bigger than my chat fanfic.

_Tick Tock_  
  
The really weird thing, it struck him, was how time just continued ticking.  
Of course time didn’t really tick, he knew that now (known that always). But it didn’t stand still, either, it just kept on running, flowing and prickling around him. He could feel it back in his consciousness, could feel it flow through his veins, so alive and wild and untamed.  
  
_Tick Tock_

He hadn’t expected it to stop, of course. He was a Timelord, he knew it never would. Except when it did.  
But it was weird. Getting your mind back, returning back to your rightful space, returning to your correct timeline just to find out it continued without you and always would.

_Tick Tock_

It was about then, he noticed the silence. Creeping up on him. Outside, there was nothing but the mocking tick of the clock, inside terrible, terrible silence, quieter than everything he’s ever known. He took a deep breath, scared of what he would find, should he start looking for it.  
But surely they wouldn’t be… surely one simple, tiny little war wouldn’t condemn him to eternal silence, wouldn’t leave him alone in the ruins of his people?  
  
_Tick Tock_  
  
He was doing the only sensible thing, the only thing his worrying, searching mind knew to do in hours of distress. He opened his mind, blocked the ticking out, but embraced the feeling of time all around him. He let his mind wander, wander through the vortex, through all cosmos, looking for the one mind he would always, always find, no matter how far away, as long as it existed.  
The Master held his breath while he felt his way through the silence. He still held his breath when there was nothing but silence as an answer. He decided to never, ever breathe again, as soon as he realized, the Doctor wasn’t going to answer him.  
And when he breathed, he started condemning, silently cursing his own betraying body, his bloody need for air, his constant craving for survival. Where had it brought him? Into a cosmos without the Timelords, without Gallifrey, without The Doctor…

_Tick Tock_

He took another deep breath. This was getting out of hand. He was The Master, he wouldn’t succumb to dramatics and… grief. He wouldn’t even admit grief. Usually. But he was ready to admit that a few centuries hiding himself away as a sentimental human being might have gotten him a tad out of practise in being the Master of his own feelings.  
Another breath. Alright, he decided. He would survive. He would find a way out of this, a nice little planet to rule and then find a way to bend all time and space to get the Doctor back. Or to conquer the universe. He hadn’t quite decided on that yet.

_TickTockTickTock  
TickTockTickTock_

Yes, probably it would be that conquering of the universe-thingy. If he was being honest, the Doctor had only ever been in his way. That’s where his obsession with the other Timelord had come from in the first place, hadn’t it?  
Besides… He could still go and bring him back, after the universe was his. Something to lay at his feet, when he finally had it all. Something to show the Doctor, how useless he was dead and that he should never, not ever, dare to die again.  
He rather liked that plan.  
And so the Master stepped out oft hat little bedroom the professor had lived in. He stepped out of the life of hundreds of people that relied on Yana, an invention, a person that never really had existed. He stepped out of his role, the guilt, the grief, the hurt, out of everything his time as a human had brought back into his life. He would be a Master once again, because that boy that cried over an heartbreak, he would be gone forever and there was no way he would ever let him live again.

And so the Master found his TARDIS, sleeping for centuries, dusty and quietly humming in a corner, unnoticed disguised as a storeroom no one could ever have entered.  
He entered, the Master of them all, as it was his right, he stepped to the console, glad to find back into his old self again, to be the one in control. He didn’t even notice, not for a very long time, that the fob watch in his hand was smashed and couldn’t be the source of the steady ticking beat he heard.

_TickTockTickTock  
TickTockTickTock_

 


	2. If you only knew

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am still very insecure about my language and looked up a lot of punctuation rules, just to realize, english has a seriously weird attitude towards commas... So please give me feedback, if I mess up anything, I'd appreciate it! Otherwise: Enjoy :)

 

He had always hated Earth. He had hated their little primitive planet, had hated the Doctor’s fascination with it. He had hated the sunshine days, with people running around happily and blabbering away, while there was nothing but bitterness and darkness in his hearts.  
He had always wondered how they did it. Getting on with their irrelevant lives, their unimportant ups and downs, their relationships not longer than a wind blow, a tiny little change of weather. He had never understood them, in this part he had to agree with the Doctor. He wouldn’t say he never could, though he certainly never tried.  
But right now, they felt closer to him than everything out there in this whole cosmos of troubled vastness. He wondered if that was what the Doctor had felt, when he left Gallifrey. A whole planet of people, that would always want more than their unimportant fates had intended for them, that ran around with their stupid mess of emotions, too much to bear, too much to control, so much like the Doctor.  
But not enough, he came to realize. Not as smart as him, not as funny, not as dry and sarcastic at exact the right times, not as illogically moral, not as….  
He stopped himself there. He stopped himself while looking at a sky with just one sun, while smelling air that wasn’t clear enough and feeling wind not wild enough. It didn’t matter what the Doctor was, because he wasn’t, oh he wasn’t.  
They weren’t going to be enough. And maybe it was the first time the Master realized, here, on a planet that he hated more than any planet in the universe, that it wasn’t enough for the Doctor as well. That all the hatred the Master had felt, all the rage at being replaced with a more primitive race, all the jealousy and hurt he had experienced… It was for nothing. If all the Doctor had tried was finding some comfort in the terrible emptiness of this nearly Gallifreyan species, if all he had wanted to do was find a way to survive in a place that wasn’t his own… He probably would’ve never understood, but he believed he did now.  
There was noise inside his head. It was terrible, terrible noise and it got louder with every beat, every always-coming beat. He closed his eyes, felt sun on his nose that wasn’t warm enough and listened. It was the sound of silence, the sound of something irrational, some kind of madness that slowly crept up at him, trying to fill the void Gallifrey had left in his head. It was his mind searching for something, any kind of voice inside of him and coming up with nothing but its own noise, its own idea of how to solve the problem.  
The Master wasn’t sure whether it was comforting or disturbing, whether he craved or cursed it. But he knew, he wouldn’t get rid of it anyway, so he embraced it, concentrated, listened, listened until his mind cleared and his eyes watered.  
No, he decided. He was still the Master. He wouldn’t sit here and give in to emotions like some stupid human ape. He was the one in control. He had a plan. Well, the starts of a plan, which was enough, really. The Doctor never had anything more than that, whenever he had stumbled into his universe domination attempts head over heels.  
He smiled. Fine, for once he’d act in the Doctor’s honour. In a plan the other Time Lord wouldn’t appreciate at all, but still. Since he wasn’t here to stop him, that was his own fault, really.  
The Master started walking. He didn’t know where and how to start, he didn’t know where to go. There was no place on this wasted planet he actually wanted to go, no one to turn to. So he just headed to the first building that towered up in front of him, hoping it would lead him to some start for his next scheme. He could become Prime Minister and drive this whole world into some kind of paradox, a paradox, that enabled him to travel back in time and fish the Doctor out of his own timeline, he’d like that, he’d like that a lot. All he needed was some advanced technics, a computer he could hack and then he could use his TARDIS to….  
Oh great, it was a school. The last thing he needed.  Loud, noisy, nosy children, running around his feet. He grunted and was already about to turn around to return to his TARDIS, when someone stumbled into him.  
‘Oh, sorry!’ that woman shouted and came to a very sudden halt.  
The first thing the Master wanted to do was shout back, naturally. The noise in his head had gotten louder, drumming aggressively, winding him up against his will. There was so much rage and bitterness inside him and he felt like they enhanced all of his emotions into an untamed torrent.  
He startled mid-shout when he realized, he knew this woman.  
She had gotten older, her dark hair was dancing around her wrinkled face and her gaze was filled with confusion, since he had just started telling her an impertinent ape and stopped right after ‘imper-‘, but it was absolutely clear who was just standing in front of him.  
The Master’s hearts raced and he felt stupid, because they got excited for an Earth woman, but they simply wouldn’t stop. That was his link, his way of finding out what had happened, a wink of fate he didn’t believe in.  
Sarah Jane Smith.  
‘Xcuse me?’ she asked with a baffled face.  
The Master couldn’t help but grin. ‘What I was trying to say, my dear Miss Smith,’ he started, ‘was that I am incredibly happy to see you.’  
‘That’s funny,’ the woman remarked dryly. ‘I thought for a second there you were going to say “impertinent”.’  
‘Wouldn’t dream of it.’  
‘Of course you wouldn’t. Well then, would you be kind enough to tell me how you know my name?’  
‘I’m a friend of the Doctor’s.’ Well, it was only half a lie, wasn’t it? Not that it mattered anyway, the Doctor surely wouldn’t protest, as he was dead.  
It still hurt.  
But Sarah Jane’s eyes brightened up. ‘The Doctor? Do you know where he is, have you seen him?’  
There it went, his link, his hope of getting any information. The silence in his head became louder, pounding in his mind, painfully and intense. He just wanted it to stop, it hurt, it hurt, it hurt, it hurt…  
‘No,’ he stated shortly. ‘I don’t. I was away for… a while and when I returned, he was gone.’  
He wondered for a moment if this was what he looked like, the moment he realized the Doctor wasn’t there anymore. Her whole face deflated, her eyes showed a desperate, determined gaze and he could watch her looking for a way out, for hope, something that allowed her to hold on to the idea of a living Doctor.  
At last, she seemed to find back her composure, took a deep breath and smiled at him in a way that surely tried to be encouraging.  
‘Well, yes, he did that with me too. Maybe you’re lucky and he finds you back. But I wouldn’t rely on it. Anyway, if you need any help coping…’  
‘Spare me,’ the Master interrupted her toneless. ‘He’s not going to find me again. He’s dead. And I don’t need help coping. There is no coping. Not from here and surely not from you. So you go and live your unimportant little life.’  
For as long as you can, before I invade it, he thought, but he didn’t say it out loud. Still, it was incredibly satisfying to just think it.  
He turned around and walked away, but her voice stopped him dead.  
‘No!’ she shouted after him. ‘You’re wrong. I haven’t seen him in ages and I was worried he might be dead, I really was. But I know now… I know I would feel it, if he was truly gone. The skies would cry, the stars would sing, the light would fade… Don’t you think you knew? If you are his friend, you know who he is, don’t you? You would know.’  
He turned around one last time, slowly, predatorily. His eyes were ice, when he gazed at Sarah Jane again, cold and merciless.  
‘Yes, I would.’  
And with that he left her, not looking back.  
  
The Master didn’t believe in fate and Sarah Jane started to understand why without even knowing she did, when she met the Doctor that day in a school invaded by alien creatures.  
Fate had been cruel to him. Had him believed this magnificent man in front of her was dead. Had him believed the skies were crying, the stars singing and the light fading. Had him left in darkness and grief, so close, so incredibly close to everything he craved for.  
And while she mentioned the weird man and the Doctor gave her a shrug and said something like ‘Must be a future encounter than, never seen someone like that before. Though he really doesn’t sound that nice, does he?’ all Sarah Jane could think of was, how close he had been. And that she wished he would’ve just entered this school with her. She knew the feel. The terrible, draining feel of thinking the Doctor dead.  
The Doctor however didn’t seem to care much. He just hugged her with that bright grin of his that seemed to light up the whole universe and everything was right again, just for a little


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Timelords meets Timelord and sparks fly. Oh no. My bad. That was just a Dalek blast.

 

**~ 5 years later ~**

He was shaking. Everything was going according to plan, well, at least that’s what he thought. The invasion was nearly ready, people had started to accept Cybermen in their households like the stupid, suicidal apes that they were and no one seemed to realize what was about to happen.  
Absolutely no one, to be precise…  
The Master tried to concentrate, collect his thoughts. He paced up and down in his big office, drew circles around his desk.  
The problem was - and it occurred to him way more often than he liked – it was too easy. Taking over Earth like this was a brilliant scheme, one of his favourites, a plan nearly perfect.  
Still, no one would stand in the back, applauding him.  
No one would give him indignant looks out of puppy eyes while trying everything in their powers to stop him…  
His brilliance wouldn’t even be appreciated, because it was unnecessary. He could run this planet over without any resistance, any plans, any brilliance at all. And there was noise in his head, constantly pounding, reminding him that all he had done, it just wasn’t enough, wasn’t good enough, was so pointless, pointless like the whole universe had become.  
Everything he had tried to gain for the last centuries, it all had become pointless and oh, he tried to fight the noise, again and again, everyday, but it hurt more and more, like someone sitting in his head, drumming and drumming, constantly, mercilessly, over and over again, drumming the words ‘The Doctor’s gone’ until it never stopped hurting again.  
The Master had once considered himself indestructible, now he wondered if it was him or if it was just the noise in his head, the constant sound of drums, wondered if it was the only thing truly left of him.  
It was these kind of thoughts, noise amongst noise, he tried to keep away, while pacing through his office. It didn’t work – of course, it never did – but he tried it anyway, as it was the only thing he could do. And wasn’t that sad.  
Him, The Master, losing control.  
So when the alarm went off, the Master actually appreciated the distraction. He’d deal with it, knowing it possibly wouldn’t take long, but at least would keep his mind off things.  
In his defence, he had to say, he really hadn’t expect Daleks.  
‘You are an enemy of the Daleks!’  
Well, what was there to say against, really. He was.  
‘Far more important,’ the Master remarked. ‘You’re an enemy of me.’  
‘You are a Timelord.’  
‘Oh, your scan told you that much, yes?’ he responded dryly. ‘Yes, I am a Timelord. The last of them, in fact. All that’s left of them. And I admit, I’m not quite up to date, but I’m pretty sure, you’ve got something to do with it, so why don’t you tell me all about it?’  
But they weren’t in the mood and he couldn’t blame them. Having chit chat and catching up by tea simply wasn’t in their nature. It wasn’t in his either, or at least he liked to act that way, so that was quite alright. Still, the pain hit him like a knife in his hearts, when one of the two invading Daleks continued speaking.  
‘You are the Doctor and you are an enemy of the Daleks. You will be exterminated.’  
He had to fight for composure for a few seconds, but eventually he ducked away, got out of the way of the first Dalek blast and raised himself again, his face determined.  
‘Sorry, but I think, you already did that a while ago. That’s why I’m here instead of the Doctor and how to tell you… I’m not as much as an idiot as he is. I’m not planning to let you kill me. In fact… ‘ he grinned and waved them, while leaving the room.  
‘In fact,’ he murmured quietly to himself. ‘I’m going to make you pay.’  
‘Ah,’ said a voice from behind him that definitely wasn’t Dalek. ‘That’s always a bit of a dangerous idea when it comes to Daleks, really.’  
‘Who are you?’ The Master turned around just in time to see a young, pretty face in front of him, before another Dalek blast crashed right between them into the wall.  
‘Oh, doesn’t really matter, does it? I’m here to stop the Cybermen invasion, that’s all you need to know for now. But now it seems to have turned into a Dalek invasion as well and that’s where it gets critical. So I suggest, you tell me about what the hell is going on here, while I lock this door, what do you say?’  
The Master watched with reluctant fascination, how the man in front of him started to move. He took some quick, elegant steps, shut the door in front of the Daleks and then…. Closed it with a sonic screwdriver.  
The noise in the Master’s head rose to thunder, crashing down on him, his hearts felt like they were trying to break out of his body and somewhere in blurry distance he heard the swoosh of the sonic device.  
No, no, no, no false hope, not now. He tried to concentrate, but it was difficult. The man – not the Doctor, couldn’t be the Doctor – had grabbed his hand, pulled him through the corridor away from the Daleks, seemingly knowing the door wouldn’t hold them back for long, no, not even for short. The Master’s vision remained blurry and everything he heard, their shouts, their blasts and his own steps on the floor, it all seemed far away, muffled by the drums in his head, pounding, pounding, pounding. He felt his own chest hurting, burning from the running, but the man – not the Doctor – seemed to stop anyway. He had pulled him into a tiny storage room and leaned against the shut door behind them. A huge grin was on his face, while he caught his breath.  
‘Well, that was a run, eh?’ he smiled, still panting.  
The Master just stared at him.  
The man – not the Doctor, he had to stop, it hurt, oh god, it hurt so much – took a few steps forward into the room, away from the door. The Master followed him with his eyes and came to the conclusion: Okay, well, yes, maybe the Doctor after all.  
A sonic screwdriver, that was one thing, everyone could make one, really, not that special at all (who’d have sonic anyway?).  
A blue police box in a storage room of his own infiltrated Torchwood building, with a girl sticking her head out the door, _that_ was something else.  
‘Everything all right, Doctor?’ (Doctor!) the blonde girl asked, a worried gaze in her young eyes. ‘You seem a bit out of breath.’  
The man – oh God, the Doctor – pulled a face.  
‘Daleks,’ he explained shortly. ‘I expected Cybermen and some idiot that let them invade, but instead I got Daleks.’  
Okay, he was overwhelmed and ready to admit it, he truly was. His head… no, actually his head had shut up for once, the noise had faded into a quiet, distant background sound, contently humming now, but the Master was still pretty puzzled. He did, however, realize he had just been called an idiot by… By the Doctor.  
‘Hey’, he shouted out. ‘My Cybermen invasion was brilliantly planned, I’ll give you “idiot”.’  
‘Oh dear,’ the Doctor (Doctor!) shouted out. ‘ _You_ planned that?’  
‘You bet I did’, the Master snorted. ‘Piece of cake, really. Humans truly are incredibly stupid. Took them all in as their cute little pets. Dead relatives visiting them as ghosts, really, I didn’t even have to invent that, they made it up all on their own.’  
The Doctor (hah!) stared at him coldly. He simply enjoyed the view. He had missed this looks, hell, he had craved it. And it screamed ‘The Doctor’ more than his horrendous screwdriver, the pretentious hero coat or his terrible hairstyle ever could.  
Okay fine, the hair wasn’t that bad.  
The Master smiled.  
‘Of course they would,’ the Doctor simply remarked after a while of frozen silence. ‘It’s hope that keeps these people going. They miss their loved ones so much they actually think they see them in smoke and mirrors and you’re blaming them?’  
The Master startled.  
A few years ago, he would’ve laughed. But he still felt his chest hurt, still heard the terrible pounding in his head and for the first time since he had become the Master again, he realized, something had changed. Something inside of him, buried so deep, he mostly didn’t even notice it was there – Oh, but he noticed now.  
So he sighed. ‘No, I don’t.’  
The Doctor actually looked surprised he had broken through to him, which made the other Timelord smirk.  
Smirking. Rassilon, it’s been a while since he had done that, hadn’t it? Maybe it was silly, but there were some expressions he had reserved for the Doctor and the Doctor only.  
‘Well then… let’s don’t… invade Earth with Cybermen, eh?’  
‘Don’t think the Cybermen are our problem right now’ the Master remarked, as a blast crashed down the door to the storage room.  
‘Fair point!’ the Doctor shouted, sprang to his TARDIS and held open the door for him. ‘Quickly!’  
The Master didn’t need to be told twice. With a swift jump he followed the Doctor and his new girlfriend (a blonde one, now that wasn’t really innovative, was it?) into his TARDIS.  
The Timelord smiled proudly, misinterpreting the fascinated wandering gaze of his new guest.  
‘Yes, it’s bigger on the inside, how nice of you to notice,’ he commented and then got a little more serious. ‘The Daleks won’t get in here, but we need to figure out a way to stop them anyway. How did they get here in the first place?’  
The Master shrugged. ‘Got nothing to do with that, actually,’ he explained. ‘Never liked them much.’  
The other Timelord glanced at him and he could sense the suspicion in his look. He decided to make it easier for him.  
‘So,’ he started and actually felt himself getting nervous. It was ridiculous and he enjoyed every second of this stupid feeling like a school boy. Hell, he was alive, alive, his Doctor, alive and how was he alive?  
Glad, he had still a bit of control left over his actions, while his feelings simply swam away on fluffy little clouds, he asked, ‘Heard you were dead. Turned out to be a bit of a fake news in the end, huh?’  
The Doctor raised one lonely eyebrow. ‘Heard? From whom? Everyone who once knew me is dead.’  
The girl just looked at them, her brown eyes wide open, wandering between the two of them.  
‘True’, the Master retorted. ‘Actually, I haven’t heard anything. Not a thing. I came back and my mind was in complete silence, not one Gallifreyan voice but my own. Leaves quite an impression.’  
The Doctor (oh Doctor!) startled.  
‘Oh right, forgot to mention that. Timelord as well, hello.’

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

 

He was shoved against the wall faster than he could blink.  
For a second the Master was surprised, then he smiled. Well, being shoved against a wall by an actual, living, breathing, radiating Doctor, it was something he never properly appreciated before, did he?  
Oh well, he did now.  
He practically grinned in his face, as the Doctor narrowed down his chocolate brown eyes and stared at him with intense anger.  
At any other time, the Master might have actually gotten scared of this look. He never would admit it, though the Doctor had always had moments in which he was able to scare him half to death. Moments, when he let rage flood him, when it seemed, mercy was washed out this body that could be so full of love and forgiveness.  
When he showed what he really was capable of, a power, always there but often disguised behind a mask of gentleness.  
But right now he recognized the defence mechanism for what it was – Rage, anger, desperation – A desperate try to not get lured in by false hope, not to get hurt by the lies of a stranger, a stranger that claimed to be what he craved, what he looked for in every corner of the universe…  
Oh surely he had, hadn’t he? If even the Master did, there was no way this Time Lord in front of him wouldn’t have.  
He realized now the Doctor clung on to him. These hands, that should’ve been threatening, would’ve been at any other time, they just mindlessly grasped his shirt and had never let go since, trembling with the effort not to tremble.  
The Master gently took them and led them to his hearts.  
He could afford to be kind, just for a while. The Doctor hadn’t the faintest clue, who he was, he was clearly driven out of his mind completely. It wasn’t that he was _insane_ , he wasn’t, not more than usual, but he seemed to have sunken into a bubble of pure despair, mindless guilt and self-hate, had clinked himself out of everything before it could destroy him completely.  The Master had thought he was dead, because the Doctor, so lost, had fought to stay alive. He could all see it clearly now, in these eyes, could see his mind, without even brushing it, without even feeling its presence.  
God, the Doctor had built a wall, had it built around his mind and locked himself out, just to drown out the silence, the void, whereas the Master had gone mad by the noise inside his head.  
Like the two sides of a coin, he thought bitterly. Won’t that ever change?  
The Doctor’s eyes widened, when he felt his heartbeat.  
The Master smirked. Here’s to something else that never changed.  
‘But you… you’re…’ The Time Lord clearly couldn’t comprehend what was happening right in front of him, but the Master was in no hurry, just waited patiently, the back against the wall, which turned out to be quite alright, as longs as it meant, he had the Doctor’s hands on his breast, his face so close, he could see his tiny little freckles and the spark in his eyes that slowly caught fire.  
God, he existed. He was alive. He was there. In front of him. And it was time to invent a new word for ‘missing’ because he did and he did so much more. He tried to create a Gallifreyan synonym, some way of connecting the words. He found a way to say ‘have, as if forever will’ but it was quite complicated, even for Gallifreyan standards, so he dropped it.  
Truth was, he was never going to tell anyone anyway.  
“I’m a Time Lord,’ he repeated instead, quietly, slowly, so the Doctor’s mind could catch up with it, as it seemed still quite tangled up in ‘Ohmygodtwoheartswhatwhatwhatwhat’ and all other sorts of lack of eloquence only the Doctor could come up with.  
‘But you can’t be,’ the Doctor finally brought out. ‘You can’t be. They’re all gone. I’m the last one.’  
‘Well, obviously you miscounted.’  
It was fun to see him frown, breaking off this despair and confusion on his face. He loved seeing the Doctor react to what he said, because he always did it so direct, so honest, because he could always make this face forget everything else for a moment.  
‘I’ve counted several times’ the Doctor assured him. ‘I searched in every corner in the universe, but I couldn’t find…’  
The accusation in his voice made the Master stop him there and then. He grabbed the fob watch out of his pocket, as good as he managed with the Doctor still so very, very close to him – and Lord, he wasn’t complaining - , and held it right between their faces, let it swing before the Doctor’s eyes.  
‘Chameleon Arch,’ he explained lightly. ‘I was disguised.’  
At the Doctor’s startled face he added, ‘And also, you’ve got to talk. _I’ve_ been searching everywhere for Gallifreyan life as well, and guess what I found! Nothing! You completely shut your mind off to the universe around you, didn’t you?’  
The Doctor flinched and slowly backed up from him. He didn’t like that, so he took a step towards the other Time Lord, filling up the space he had left.  
The other stared into his eyes with intenseness and a tiny, little frown that made the Master grin.  
Finally, he just asked, ‘You’re not Braxiatel, are you?’  
The Master could feel the grin fade from his face. Did he say he missed the Doctor? Oh, he took it back now. More like an ‘Never knew you existed, what would I miss’, really, anyway:  
‘Brax-iat-el?’ he asked with suppressed anger in his voice. ‘Do I look like… I… are you serious?’  
And then the Doctor burst out into laughter and the Master watched a few seconds, totally perplexed, then decided he settled for a little ‘Okay, I might have missed him in human standards. Like when your puppy dies. A cute, fluffy puppy, with warm brown eyes and that sweet little bark that makes your heart…’   
Okay, he would stop there. His laugh was really nice.   
That’s it.  
‘Not Braxiatel, then,’ the Doctor finally remarked, still grinning like an idiot. ‘Didn’t hope you would be, actually, he’s a bit of a trouble magnet, really.’  
The Master snorted. But he couldn’t help but revive his own grin again. It was just something, standing here, joking about Braxiatel with someone, who actually _understood_. He just realized, he was with the only other person in the whole of existence, who knew who Braxiatel was.  
And as much as that stupid twat deserved to be forgotten, it was a feeling terrifying and magnetizing at the same time.  
‘And you’re no trouble magnet, luckily. Oh by the way – Daleks at the front door.’  
The Doctor grinned. He felt it too, the Master could tell. The thrill of being understood, of being sarcastic and being noticed, of someone knowing the danger of a Dalek without any explaining and still being perfectly capable of joking about them.   
The joy of not being the last of his kind.  
‘Ehm, yes,’ a voice said behind the Doctor’s back – oops, the girl just stood there, he absolutely had forgotten her, but it was quite enjoyable to notice the Doctor’s flinch, telling him the other Time Lord had as well –  ‘If we could go back to these Daleks now?’  
The Doctor gave her a guilty look. ‘Sorry, yes, of course, have you been…’ He stopped dead.  
‘What’s wrong,’ the Master asked instantly with more seriousness in his voice. He knew this look on the Doctor’s face, it meant trouble. Real trouble.  
‘There’s more of them,’ the Timelord explained quietly, his eyes glued to a screen next to his TARDIS console. ‘Many more of them. Hidden away safely in Time Lord Technology.’  
He pointed at the screen and the Master looked, but he didn’t miss the Doctor’s accusing glare and sighed.  
‘They didn’t get this from me. All I had when I got back was my TARDIS and this bloody fob watch.’  
The Doctor’s face lit up for a second. ‘You’ve got a TARDIS? Another living TARDIS?’  
The Master nodded, but wouldn’t accept the topic change.  
‘So, all we’ve got to do is destroy this thing before they can get out. And the two Daleks that are already, do I get this right?’  
The Doctor looked at him with a bit of badly hidden worry on his face, but then nodded eventually. The other realized, he didn’t like to hear the word ‘destroy’. Oh, that was so the Doctor, wasn’t it? In the end, it would be exactly what they would do, but he didn’t like the words, didn’t like to be called what he was.  
Well, together with missing him ‘More than the sun had ever been missed’ came ‘Missed to tease him like a full moon teased a werewolf’, so he didn’t pay the Doctor’s reservation much attention.  
‘So, then, Oncoming Storm, what’s the plan?’ he grinned instead.  
Another dark glare, but yet again the Doctor remained silent.  
Hell, being the only other Time Lord in existence really cut him some slack.  
The blonde girl stood next to them, still watching him with scary widened eyes, no, they weren’t really scared, she wasn’t scared, just a mix of nervousness and curiosity, he noticed. He decided, despite her being blonde, she seemed to be quite alright. At least she seemed to know when to shut up.  
‘Well…,’ the Doctor started with that tone of his that announced a lot of unnecessary complicated words. ‘I guess we could rip open a rift between dimensions. It would suck the Daleks and your Cybermen-Ghosts right in and we’d just have to hold tight and…’  
‘Oh, for Christ’s sake, let’s just blow them up.’  
Silence.  
Then Rose laughed. ‘I like him.’  
‘Rose…’  
‘What?’ she snapped back. ‘They’re Daleks. I know you respect every living creature, but them, Doctor, really?’  
Yep, the Master thought. She was alright.  
The Doctor sighed. ‘Well, blowing them up sounds fair enough,’ he finally agreed. ‘What I was trying to say is: Don’t grow fond of him just yet, will you?’  
The Master sulked a bit, but the Doctor just raised one eyebrow unimpressed and then turned back to the screens.  
‘We’d have to get all the humans out of this building first,’ he explained. ‘And then I still don’t know how to…’  
‘Oh, never worry,’ the Master grinned. ‘Blowing up is my expertise. In fact, it’s very easy. The Cyberman-Ghost-Machine I created is turned into a superb little explosion in no time at all.’  
The Doctor sighed and nodded, exchanging one look with the girl – Rose, he called her.  
‘Are all the Time Lords maniacs?’ she wanted to know in amusement and the Master decided to let this one slide, because she agreed to his Dalek blow up and he really liked explosions.  
Also, she was right.  
The Doctor actually had the courtesy to grin.  
‘No. Only the best ones.’  
Well, that did include him, didn’t it? So he was going to blow some Daleks up, got his Doctor back from the not-quite-dead _and_ got complimented by him as well.  
No Cyberman invasion of Earth at all, but he’d still tick this day off as ‘success’.

 


	5. Chapter 5

‘Okay,’ the Doctor said when he offered him a fresh cup of tea.  
  
The Master sniffed with a cringed nose but decided eventually that the Doctor’s tea make skills seemed to have improved and took a sip.  
  
He frowned.   
  
‘I don’t want sugar in my tea.’  
  
Leaning back in the chair opposite to him, sipping on his own tea, the Doctor stared at him in utter confusion.   
  
‘Sugar is the best thing about tea!’  
  
The Master watched him for a few seconds sulkily, then just gave up on tea for the next centuries or two. It was always the same with that man.  
  
‘So,’ he finally went on and let his cup sink. ‘Are you going to tell me, who you are?’  
  
The Master thought about this for a minute, genuinely did. He had, in fact, thought about the matter the whole day, it didn’t even let him enjoy his explosion properly. He was caught up in the decision, torn between seeing the Doctor’s reaction, communicating properly with him and staying on board for a bit, not being hated quite as soon.  
  
He had never been the sentimental kind, but he had already admitted to himself he had missed the Doctor, and to a certain degree he was ready to extent that admission.   
  
He didn’t want to lose him again just yet.   
  
‘Have you got a list?’ he asked in a manner that must’ve seemed quite random for the Doctor.  
  
The other Time Lord frowned.   
  
‘A list?’  
  
‘Yes a list. When you think of “Time Lord who survived the war” there must be some names which pop up, you know, names you _want_ me to be.’  
  
The look on the Doctor’s face was one of confusion, but he seemed to think about it and after a while, he shrugged.   
  
‘I guess so, yes.’  
  
The Master smiled. ‘Well then, consider me not on it.’  
  
After quite a few minutes in silence, the Doctor had spent with uninterrupted, utterly confused staring, the Time Lord sighed.   
  
‘That’s already more than you need to know. I don’t want to shatter all of your hopes, so let’s leave it at that.’  
  
‘So…,’ the Doctor finally managed to speak. ‘You’re not going to tell me?’  
  
‘Glad you got it,’ the Master mocked.  
  
His opposite still stared, his eyes widened and eternally confused. It was a delight so see that deep brown in a state near to desperation.   
  
‘But… wouldn’t you want to know?’  
  
The Master shrugged. ‘No, I don’t think I’d care much.’  
  
_I would know the second you entered the room if it was you,_ was what he didn’t say aloud.  
  
_I wouldn’t care about any other Time Lord anyway_ , was what he didn’t even dare to think.   
  
‘You know,’ he pointed out after another little while of silence. ‘If you keep your jaw open long enough, it might stay that way. I wouldn’t want you to have to regenerate, just because you’ve lost your ability to talk.’  
  
The Doctor closed his mouth, letting the confusion slowly fade away and turn into something more thoughtful.   
  
‘You know, you’re at an advantage here. You seem to know me quite well, I don’t even know your name. That is hardly fair?’  
  
The Master cherished to be challenged, and he cherished how the Doctor had started seeing their conversation as a challenge, a riddle to crack open to get to his answer. He smiled at the thoughtful tone his opponent had taken, but shook his head quite lightly.   
  
‘If you assume I’d know you well, just because I know you never want to stop talking, I’m sorry to inform you, everyone in this bloody universe knows you well.’  
  
Even more than being challenged by him, he loved to make the Doctor laugh.  
  
It was a beautiful sound, something light-hearted that warmed up his eyes, which were all dark and stormy most of the times. He would, of course, never openly admit even noticing, but the Master had always been quite the observer and there was something about the Doctor that had shifted. Something dark, cold, living inside of him, eating him up slowly and painfully.  
  
He wasn’t just a wanderer anymore, he wasn’t the man that had ran away from Gallifrey, he was now the last of his kind, carrying the responsibility of the universe on his shoulders. The same things he had always done, they now were heavy and painful on him, because he didn’t do them for _fun_ anymore, he did them because he had to.   
  
‘So, what’s the plan then?’ the Doctor finally asked. ‘Are you going to stay with us?’  
  
‘Am I invited?’ the Master asked and even though he knew perfectly well, the Doctor wouldn’t just kick out the only other Time Lord in existence, he still felt his hearts stutter in fear of rejection. He just couldn’t get rid of this feeling, no matter who he was in the Doctor’s eyes, he was still the Master and he was so used to the other’s rejection, it was streaming through his bloodstream, leaving him sweaty and nervous like a little Earth school boy, while the drums in his minds were swelling to unbearable noises.  
  
He would never truly stop being disgusted at what the Doctor could turn him into.  
  
The Doctor didn’t seem to notice his internal battle, he simply shrugged.   
  
‘Sure, why not? Always good to have someone on board who knows how to blow up Daleks.’  
  
The Master bid down on a mocking ‘As if you wouldn’t’, knowing it would bring the Doctor nothing but sorrow. He was usually a fan of the Doctor’s sorrow, but he had to admit that right now, the other one seemed to have more than enough of that.  
  
Funny, what a new perspective thinking someone dead brought.   
  
‘Then I’d like to stay,’ he said instead.  
  
The Doctor smiled, that knowing, compassionate smile he hated so much. He wanted to attack him with a tea cup, but then he remembered that the other Time Lord would probably be grateful for the sickening sweet hell he had offered him and settled for just glaring at him darkly.  
  
‘Okay, but I will need a name, I’m not going to call you “Time Lord that’s not on my list” for the end of time.’  
  
The Master smirked. ‘How about John Smith then?’  
  
With a slow shake of his head, the Doctor grabbed his own tea once again.  
  
‘This is really not fair, you know? I can’t even mock you back.’  
  
‘Your luck,’ the Master answered with dead serious tone. ‘You wouldn’t want me to have to hurt you, would you?’  
  
‘Ohhhh,’ the Doctor laughed. ‘You’re one of the dangerous ones.’  
  
His answer was a snort.   
  
‘Like you hadn’t figured _that_ out already.’  
  
A nod.   
  
‘You’re still taking me with you?’  
  
Another nod, even more serious.   
  
‘Damn, you’re really desperate, aren’t you?’  
  
With shaking hands, the Doctor let his cup sink down on the table. The Master watched with slightly tilted eyebrow, then sighed.   
  
‘For what it’s worth,’ he said. ‘I won’t miss Gallifrey.’  
  
The Doctor didn’t look convinced, watching him with a sceptical raised eyebrow.  
  
‘Alright,’ the Master bent. ‘Maybe Gallifrey, but not the other Time Lords.’  
  
‘So you don’t have a list?’  
  
The Master had been ready to ignore the question, had expected it to come up sooner. But the Doctor sounded both, genuinely curious and terrifyingly guilty, and he just couldn’t keep his silence up.  
  
He smiled.   
  
‘You are my list, Doctor.’


End file.
